Poltergeist was one of the movies that got me into visual FX. For the final scene where the house sucked into Hell or wherever, they had to build a 3 foot model house and they sucked it into an industrial vacuum. Obviously if they farked it up they'd have to build another house for another hundred grand. In the remake, the same scene will be done by a 21 year old with consumer priced motion graphic software in a half hour.

At least in the case of Carrie, there's additional material in the book that can be adapted (De Palma's film was pretty faithful, but it will forever be a product of the 70s in both good and bad ways). It's also a pretty good story in the age of school bullying (check that - I mean the age of overreacting to school bullying). I'm not a huge fan of the need for the remake, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't horrified for the girl when you see someone with a cell phone out during the shower "plug it up" scene. That just seems far more awful than just the six or seven girls who witnessed the event originally.

YMMV, obviously, but I'm not ready to write off the Carrie reboot just yet. It's entirely possible the studio is just looking for a paycheck, but I expect a little more from the chick who directed "Boys Don't Cry." If it was just some Hacky McHackenstein who did two other remakes for Platinum Dunes, I'd be condemning it already as well.

But Poltergeist? Man, every frame of that is awesome. Even the scenes that don't make sense are perfectly done.

Mugato:Mulchpuppy: But Poltergeist? Man, every frame of that is awesome. Even the scenes that don't make sense are perfectly done.

The maggot steak/ face ripping off scene was sort of farked up. It makes me think that's the one scene that Tobe Hooper directed and not Spielberg.

Crap. Didn't think about that scene. That's an excellent observation, especially since it didn't involve any of the principal actors (I'm with you in the belief that Spielberg directed it. It has all Spielberg's tells and nothing in Hooper's resume comes even close to Poltergeist).

The maggot scene is just weird because of the whole "it's 3 am or so. I'm gonna go FRY a giant freaking steak and undoubtedly stink up this whole damn house. Probably wasn't even their food. Just chow down on anything the Frelings left in the fridge, right?"

The original still scares the living shiat out've me.(The face ripping scene looks *really* dated and unrealistic now unfortunately. I suppose they could cut it out entirely and still have the greatest ghost movie ever)

Take an old tube style TV from the 70's, one of the ones that had a UHF dial. Set the dial to UHF, somewhere at the top of the dial, say 82 or 83. Sit about 3 feet away from the screen, unfocus your eyes, and stare at the static for a minute. Soon, your brain will start making patterns, images, and pictures in the not quite random snow. Some of the images can be quite disturbing.

johnnieconnie: JeffMD: I never knew Heather O'Rourke died, let alone as such a young age. That is so sad.

The actress who played the older sister, Dominique Dunne, was murdered by her boyfriend.

Mugato: Mulchpuppy: But Poltergeist? Man, every frame of that is awesome. Even the scenes that don't make sense are perfectly done.

The maggot steak/ face ripping off scene was sort of farked up. It makes me think that's the one scene that Tobe Hooper directed and not Spielberg.

That was the very disturbing to me as a kid. I was about 30 before I could watch that without covering my eyes. I still can't really watch the clown under the bed thing.

What are they going to do about the ghosts coming through on TV part? TV doesn't even go off the air and play the national anthem anymore.

/you are old if you can remember "off the air"

Yep. Immediately after the national anthem, our TV had color bars appear, and made the old dial up screeching sound. That would freak me out even before poltergeist came out. Then you would have to get up to turn off the TV. /I was the youngest, so I would be the one to stand by the box and await instructions from our dad (change channel, fix rabbit ears, increase volume/ //41

My public library has all 3 of these and, having never seen them, I banged them all out in one day about a month or so ago. The 1st one was good. #2 was tolerable. The only thing that got me through #3 was screaming "WHAT?!" every time someone in the movie said "Carol Anne?!"

Mugato:Poltergeist was one of the movies that got me into visual FX. For the final scene where the house sucked into Hell or wherever, they had to build a 3 foot model house and they sucked it into an industrial vacuum. Obviously if they farked it up they'd have to build another house for another hundred grand. In the remake, the same scene will be done by a 21 year old with consumer priced motion graphic software in a half hour.

Visual FX must have been a lot more fun back in the day.

I loved watching "making of" features back in the day. You'd see tables full of model sized reality. That was movie magic.